How to Work with an Animated Video Production Company?

by Josh Biggs in Digital Marketing, Marketing on 20th September 2023

An animated video is the ideal technique to vividly illustrate your point in a short length of time and at a low cost. Here’s what you get:

  • the capacity to illustrate a complicated product or service; 
  • abstract ideas and intangible processes; 
  • limitless personalization options; 
  • vivid presentation.

With the help of an animation video agency such as MezzoLab, you can develop a memorable character and an emotive tale that will become connected with your business. A graphic video, as opposed to live filming, has practically limitless instruments and enables the realization of the most audacious concepts. Modern animation has the ability to depict abstract concepts, and unseen processes, and even provide a degree of interior product viewing that is unattainable with camera technology.

 

When Do Animated Videos Work the Best?

Let’s look at when you should definitely involve animation in your content strategy.

When the budget is limited

Compared to a full-length video, a graphic video in many cases is cheaper to produce. There is no need to hire a large team with expensive equipment, rent a studio, and pay fees to models. In most cases, only an artist, an animator, and an art director work on the creation of animated videos.

When to display abstract concepts

The capacity to envision something that cannot be seen during live filming is a significant benefit of animation. For instance, depict the notion of a future product, which is when the actual thing does not yet exist in reality, or show technically sophisticated items, intangible processes, or services.

Phases of Creating Animation

The processes of creating a graphic video may vary depending on the artist.

Create an idea or put one into practice

At this stage, the agency briefs the client and learns about his preferences, wishes, and overall vision for the next film. If the customer does not already have an idea, the team develops a number of options for them to pick from.

Write a script

The copywriter starts composing the announcer’s script and material after reaching an agreement with the client on the final concept of the upcoming video.

Developing a storyboard

To provide the customer with a preview of how the film would appear after editing, the artist creates early drawings. This enables you to scale back the quantity of modifications you make in later phases.

Create characters and visual components

The major graphic components and characters, if any, for the video are then created by the artist.

Make edits and effect

After all parties involved have agreed on the aforementioned items, the animator starts editing and adding effects, or making a video.

Making musical accompaniment

Then, the agency provides a track from the database – ready-made or with modifications at the client’s request, or the team records an individual one.

Do professional voice-over work

Most performers outsource sound design work. But high-quality agencies have their own equipped recording studio and sound engineer, so they do such projects on a turnkey basis.

What Is the Price of Animation?

Like a live video, the price of an animated video might vary from project to project. Pricing is frequently impacted by the length and complexity of the animation, less frequently by the presence of an original idea and the development of distinctive characters. Without receiving the first brief, not a single professional actor will provide you with an upfront estimate of the cost of the upcoming video.

Pricing for 2D or 3D animation sometimes necessitates a customized strategy. The kind, manner, and length of the graphic video are the key determinants of price. You will only receive a rough estimate even after setting these values. 

After the script has been developed and approved, the total is tallied up. Such circumstances may result in misunderstandings and an impression of opacity. The client’s perception that animation is too pricey serves to support this.

When ordering an animated movie, you need to first select whether a 2D or 3D animation is needed. Often, flat graphics are less expensive than 3D ones. There are, however, certain exceptions when the job is made difficult by additional elements, such as a novel idea or character drawing. Even simple 2D graphics will cost an order of magnitude more than 3D in this case.

Animated Theme

The objectives of the video have an impact on the animation style selected: 

  1. Flat vector drawings are ideal for illustrating a basic service’s working principles; 
  2. The company’s manufacturing process will be illustrated by isometric animation; 
  3. Volumetric graphics can mix the two aforementioned techniques; a doodle video is perfect for instructional movies or detailed instructions; 
  4. An online service or program may be effectively demonstrated via a screencast, and CGI visuals will tastefully display all the product’s information from various perspectives. 

This is a very tiny portion of the styles that customers are increasingly frequently requesting. The titles may be more internal in nature and may vary between various production studios, but the list’s essential elements are the same.

The animation video’s timing

The time of the video is the third element that directly impacts the price of animation. It’s a frequent fallacy that each second of the video proportionally affects the price. Actually, the first 30 to 40 seconds are accurate to this. For instance, despite a logical difference of 50%, the pricing difference between 30 and 60-second films will only be 30%. 

The reality is that the majority of labor expenses go into producing the visuals and animation that form the video’s foundation. As a result, production studios frequently determine the cost of the project rather than a second or a minute.

The price of writing a script

You can provide your own screenplay when creating an animation video, and it will be modified and used. The production studio will develop and offer a selection of several concepts, taking into consideration current trends, if there isn’t time for innovation, and then compose a script.

An animatic or storyboard is the next phase. The future video is envisioned in sketches that can later be animated. In order to possibly update the script at this early level, visualization is required. The customer will incur additional fees if significant modifications are made during the final stage of graphic design.

The uniqueness of animated video creation is that before the graphic designer starts work, each iteration is decided upon with the customer, and corrections are done. The contract will usually stipulate that the customer can make no more than two basic adjustments to the final product without incurring additional fees.

Graphics development costs

The designer starts producing visuals after the concept, narrative, storyboard, and/or animatic have been agreed upon. Static pieces are being constructed, and the style and color palette are being worked on.

A different artist is recruited to design a specific character if the screenplay asks for it. He creates the physical characteristics, demeanor, and expressions of the eventual hero.

A narrator or other form of sound accompaniment is also necessary for an animated video to be complete. Each voice acting and sound design component controls the brightness, contrast, and tone of the embedded message in the video like a toggle switch.

We hope our article helped you understand how to work with an animation video agency and how much all this costs.